AMU is a very unique world in itself. Just as when we start assuming that we are well versed with every aspect of this university, it offers new phenomenon to leave us baffled & in utter surprise. Aligarh Muslim University’s Students Union (AMUSU) Elections of 2012-13 is the latest event that has again proven that there are some newly seen patterns which demand in-depth reflections from all interested parties. These recently emerging patterns offer many positives which should be capitalized by those who are genuinely interested in the welfare of AMU.
AMUSU elections are indeed an event of national importance. With Jamia Millia Islamia’s administration banning Students’ Union in their university, AMUSU is the only students’ organization that has some legitimacy of claiming to represent the Indian Muslims in general & Indian Muslim youth in particular. Therefore, whatever happens in these elections & whoever gets elected requires a thorough analysis. This current election was pretty much different from the earlier two elections that I have witnessed. First, no printed posters were allowed to be pasted & university buildings were not defaced as the authorities maintained strict vigil & even minor violations were quickly responded with show-cause notices to the candidates. Second, the minimum 75 % attendance rule was strictly enforced leaving many candidates’ nomination papers cancelled. Third, the students were less enthusiastic this time around in comparison to the last two elections owing to multiple factors such as late holding of elections, corruption & dismal performance of last Students’ Union, relatively less number of eligible candidates, etc.
The election days are one of the most exciting times in the whole academic session. Every candidate was seen bent & offering salaam making an angle of almost 90 degrees. Every Tom, Dick & Harryclaimed to have at least 100 to 200 voters under his command. The sales of Cigarettes, Petrol & Tea had skyrocketed. The engines of the bikes asked for mercy due to constant noise created by the accelerators of bikes. Since, there was a ban on printed posters the volunteers of the candidates came up with more creative posters created with sketch-pens & in some cases, even by Aerosol sprays. Candidates by-passed the directions of no-posters on University walls by pasting their hand-made posters on virtually every tree (as trees can’t be considered a wall) of the campus. Sir Syed (North) Hall was made their “office” by most of the candidates while other halls were almost silent spectators of the elections. It was also quite common to see promises being done, of betrayals being committed by one’s own trusted “friends”, pacts done by regional lobbyists & rhetorical promises of the candidates.
One of the positives that can be drawn from this election is the seemingly declining influence of highest- level regional seniors-cum-University mafia on the general students. The reason is attributed to the less frequent interaction of Seniors & Juniors nowadays compared to what have been the case a decade earlier. The fresher students have their own aspirations & circles leading to a lesser influence of the senior“vultures” of their respective regions on their voting behaviour. The other positive development was the showing of more political maturity by the Aligs this time when a candidate was alleged to be sponsored by the “Communists” - a term to denote the most devilish section of the AMU by some. I personally felt pretty glad to be told by many of my friends that this was a dirty conspiracy of the opponents to discredit the candidate. Earlier, this labeling was a very easy way to delegitimize anyone & the voters were very easily swayed by this propaganda. This incident shows that most of us have learnt from our earlier mistakes & will not be deceived so easily by mere allegations.
Being a student of engineering, I am a close witness to the generally apathetic attitude of the majority of my college-mates regarding student politics & AMUSU elections. It is unfortunate that the students of Engineering faculty which comprises of approximately one-fourth of the total registered voters don’t take much interests in politics. Most of the engineers cast their votes without much thought either on the request of their known ones or on some other petty criteria like region, department, personal relations, etc. But, it came as a pleasant surprise that on the polling day of this elections many of my college-mates were casting votes, especially for the post of President & Vice-President for a candidate they considered to be “deserving” based upon the candidates’ past activities & achievements.
At last, I want to say that I personally see some promising developments in the usually dirty politics of Students’ Union elections which gives me hope to actively engage ourselves in materializing on these positives to restore AMUSU’s past glory. Efforts are also required to be directed to aware our fellow students regarding the importance of students’ politics & offering opposition to counter check the corrupt-practices of student leaders once they come in power. Let’s see if we can make some constructive contributions to our beloved institution.
No comments:
Post a Comment